Posts mainly from my home in Barcelona but I also upload photos and thoughts when I'm out and about in the rest of Catalonia and Spain.

miércoles, 9 de noviembre de 2011

Talking Barça 5 - Athletic Bilbao, Hospitalet and England v Spain

In Talking Barça Podcast 5, we air our disagreements on the Athletic-Barça match particularly regarding Cesc Fàbregas's performance, moan a little about Guardiola and agree that Piqué isn't up to scratch at the moment. We go on to tear Ibrahimovic to shreds, discuss Barça's match in the Copa del Rey against Hospitalet and Spain (or as we prefer 'Barça and friends') versus England.

Athletic Club 2 FC Barcelona 2

Despite enjoying a great game of football between Athletic and Barça, coming away from San Mamés with only a point was somewhat disappointing.

There is some debate about the effectiveness of Cesc Fàbregas in the centre forward position. Both of us feel that the side would work better with the Arenys player coming in from a deeper second line of attack as a False 10, as this would allow him to link up with a more offensive Messi in the centre of the forward line.

The problem seems to be based on Pep Guardiola's desire to 'reinvent the wheel'. He has an offensive set up that works but is continually experimenting. Wouldn't it be better if he stuck to a tried and tested formula?

Piqué's performance was disappointing - particularly his involvement in Athletic's second goal. He obviously has every right to be in a relationship with Shakira but when the media attention affects his ability to come up with the goods on the pitch, as Barça fans we have every right to question him.

What's more when Zlatan Ibrahimovic was at Camp Nou, Piqué and the Swedish striker were close friends. In the light of Ibrahimovic's absurdly exaggerated statements about his relationship with Guardiola, there is even more room for doubt.

Hospitalet v FC Barcelona

Barça's next match is in the last 16 of the Copa del Rey against Segunda B side L'Hospitalet.

Currently second in Spain's regional Third Division, the Llobregat club have just beaten Simon's great love UE Sant Andreu at Feixa Llarga, so if they take a drubbing from Barça, he will be more than satisfied.

There are some doubts about the players available to Pep Guardiola as many of the lads from Barça B have been called up for Spain's Under-21 International against England.

As the game will be shown on local television, this would have been a great opportunity to see the depth of FC Barcelona's future talent in action

Spain v England

Spain's match against England at Wembley calls our national identity into question.

We will both be supporting Spain or Barça and Friends as we irreverently prefer to call them. Why?

Well, it's a question of familiarity and convenience. We are both Barça supporters and avid followers of La Liga so we're much more familiar with the group of players who make up the Spain squad.

It's also a question of enjoying an easy life. Having lived in Barcelona since the late-1980s, we're both pretty integrated into life here and quite simply, having to go down the bar and support a different team ends up being a bit of a hassle.

Given the fact that Spain are currently the best international side in the world and England are pretty mediocre and hasve been for some time, we'd have to ba nuts not to support La Roja. We predict a 2-1 or 3-1 victory for Spain!

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Don't miss the next Talking Barça Podcast, when we will be previewing Barça's Liga game against Real Zaragoza and discussing the Champions League tie against AC Milan.